I'm a big fan of football polls. Granted, they really only represent the opinions of my booze-addled, overworked sports media brethren, but it's fun to argue over them or get indignant when my team of choice isn't ranked as highly as I think they should be. Prep polls are pretty tough to do, frankly. They are voted on by the aforementioned sportswriters who do a good job but also can't possible see every team they are voting on. It isn't feasible to think an upstate guy who covers mostly 4A and 5A schools has seen or had time to do research on 1A Baptist Hill way down yonder in Hollywood. So they go based on record, how the team did last year, tradition etc. Then, a template is kind of set and it's hard for teams break into the poll if teams above them do just enough to keep being ranked. Which is why you see C.E. Murray, which is tucked in a rural corner of the state without much media presence and who hadn't had a winning record for 10 years going into last season, not ranked in the final regular-season poll despite being 9-1. I couldn't fill out 4A and 5A polls worth a dang, to be honest with you, since I don't cover any as part of my job. I do pay close attention to Class A, though, am a self-described expert on the subject of small-school football and will now be offering up my own weekly poll. Actually, "a poll" indicates the opinions and votes of multiple individuals were tabulated into one final result and this is totally JUST ME BABY! So I may have to think of a different name (Travey's Whimsical 1A Edict...I don't know, if you have suggestions leave them in the comment section) but I'll try to do this every Wednesday.
Now, I won't be married to what I offer this first week. The way a lot of polls work (with college football mainly), if a team starts off highly ranked, keeps winning, but looks unimpressive in doing so, they often maintain their position. Why? Because the folks doing the polls decided the team was good, put them at number five and actually consider them the fifth-best team in the country until given hard evidence (a loss) to the contrary. That's sort of the foundation upon which the next week's poll is built. They keep them there even at the expense of a surprise team, that started the year unranked, but is clearly playing better than that ranked team. The team not expected to be good has to battle expectations and the perception of superiority that other teams have just because of that initial ranking. Well, I'll toss somebody out of my top 10 at the drop of a hat. Seriously. I'm going to try to make each poll a snapshot of the week...of who I think are actually the 10 best teams, based on body of work, that week. I'm also NOT going to punish a 1A team that plays a manly schedule. Lamar will obviously be ranked highly in this initial poll. They play a good AAAA squad in Darlington this week. A loss there doesn't suddenly mean that McBee or Lake View is better than Lamar. It means a tiny school played a very big one and lost. That isn't coming with a penalty. I'm not going to just give you 1-10 and be done with it, either. You see, part of my sordid, nomadic media past includes a long stint as a disk jockey. My first job was working two, six-hour shifts every Saturday at WGCD in Chester. Among my duties was playing Casey's Top 40 and I'll admit to long being a fan of countdown type shows. I like the way the tension and anticipation would build...Hey, that sappy Bryan Adam's song from the Robin Hood movie has been number one for seven weeks. Can it make it to eight, or will PM Dawn move to the top? PM Dawn's scorching up the charts y'all! Casey sold the sizzle, boy. He'd also read a request and dedication every hour and play a song that had almost nothing to do with the sentiment of the letter he'd read. "Dear Casey, my name is Melvin. For a long time, we had a pet bird named Pete. Pete was a funny bird and could even talk. We also have a cat named Snowball and I guess cats like to eat birds, because one day Snowball tooted and some feathers came out and Pete was gone. I really miss my bird and was hoping you would play a song for him. Thanks, Melvin. Melvin, here's your request and dedication to your dearly departed Pete...it's 'Freak Me' by Silk." Huh? Anyway, I did a Casey's Countdown 1A poll last year (IT WAS HILARIOUS AND YOU CAN READ IT HERE), so I don't really want to do that again. I'm not one to completely repeat myself, but I do like to milk the good idea cow more than once if I can. So, let's go to my next radio stop...a country station where one of my first jobs was, you guessed it, to play American Country Countdown every week. So, in true countdown style, we'll start at 10 AND WE WON'T STOP TILL WE REACH THE TOP! We're also going to subject you to the most horrible mid-90s country music imaginable. ENJOY! 10. Bethune-Bowman OK, it's been a really long time since the awesomely-named Mohawks have been on anybody's top 10 list...if by "a long time" you mean "never." Since consolidation formed this school of just 181 students over a decade ago, it has never enjoyed a winning season. The last semblance of giridiron success in the area was a 6-5 record by the now-defunct Bowman High School in 2004. I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories...a long-struggling program starts to turn things around. We've seen that story play out at C.E. Murray and Whitmire in the past year. The Mohawks are 2-0, having routed Military Magnet 32-0 in a half in the opener and followed that up with a 32-6 victory over Denmark-Olar last Friday. Braxton Wedgeworth looks like a good athlete with a strong arm at quarterback and 5'8, 225-pound Makiah Simmons looks like the kind of running back who steps on other children's faces...maybe stands there for a second so they can see what a cleat up the left nostril feels like. Defensively, they've given up six points in two games. There will be some challenges down the line, but look for the Mowhawks to get to 3-0 this week as they pick up a win over North. Speaking of pick-ups...Joe Diffie is up three notches on the countdown this week! 9. Baptist Hill The Bobcats aren't just 2-0, they've doled out the kind of whippings where you take all the beer out of the dude's fridge and call his wife "sweet thang" on the way out the door because he's not going to do anything about it. They routed Branchville 50-6, then took out AA Garrett Middle College for People Named Bob (or whatever their official name is) 36-14...the same Garrett that went 5-5 last year and beat Baptist Hill 34-nam. In that game last week, per David Shelton (who you can follow on Twitter), QB Corey Fields had 500 yards of total offense. Remember, that didn't come against some weenie internet school, it was against AA competition. Keep an eye on this bunch...they have two winnable games in the next two weeks and could be on roll by the time they face Cross September 16. Colin Raye isn't on as much of a roll...here in Little Rock, where he's down five notches to number 9. 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler The Trojans are 1-1, but are playing a growed-up man's schedule. They opened with a very good AAA team in Fairfield Central, then played a not-great one (Edisto) and took them to the woodshed...for a while, grabbed some hickory switches and really worked up a sweat (it was 46-15). DeVante Scott is one of the many great dual-threat quarterbacks in Class A, having thrown for 1,200 yards and run for 1,600 last year. They are off this week, but other killer match-ups with Calhoun County and Wagener-Salley await...much like Rick Trevino still awaits his first trip to the top of the country and western charts. 7. Cross I'm almost giving the Trojans (lotta Trojans in the top 10...moving along now) an incomplete because they've only played one game and that was against a not-very-good Burke team. Still, Cross's only loss to a Class A team last year was against a powerhouse Lake View team in overtime in the second round of the playoffs. The Trojans pounded it on the ground against Burke, with four different backs rushing for over 50 yards (Nate Walker led the way with 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns). They have quite a bit of returning talent, though they aren't particularly deep this season. They face a tall order in Timberland this week but for the long haul, I'm sold on their talent...and the lady in the second row, just like John Michael Montgomery. 6. C.E. Murray The War Eagles are 1-1, having taken down AA Kingstree in the opener and lost to a good AA team in Bamberg-Ehrhardt this past Saturday. Often times when a school as small as C.E. Murray loses several college-level talents, the drop-off is significant. Coaches I talk to don't see that happening because Brian Smith is a good coach and still has plenty of talent to work with ( like dangerous skill guys Darius Rush and Carlton Robinson ). The odd thing is that the War Eagles are stuck in the middle of a two-week break because of a scheduled off-week and the unexpected closing of Lincoln High, which left a hole they were unable to plug. They'll come out of it, though, rested and ready to burn the competition like a girl does her daddy's money...here's Ricochet! 5. Lewisville The Lions have some of the top individual talent in Class A. You've heard of Josh Belk (who is proving totally worth the hype) but Jene Thompson, Daryl Manning, Trey Keels, Mike Hill, Johnny Courtney, Keilan Renegar and others are some of the best at their position in the classification. They've melded into a solid team now too, a product of playing together for years and maturing as a group. They're 2-0 with both wins over AA competition, including this past week over Blacksburg. Thompson was lost in pre-game to a finger injury and Keels was out with an banged-up ankle suffered in the opener. No problem, Quentin Sanders flipped from running back to quarterback, had over 200 yards of total offense and accounted for three touchdowns. The Lions had multiple opportunities to give the game away or quit and might have when the roster was younger. They didn't...making plays in crunch time to win it. Watch out for this team...and this boogie woogie choo choo train being engineered by The Tractors! 4. Wagener-Salley This may be a tad high, but count me among the believers in the Stump Whooped All-Stars (a ridiculous name I just made up for this team). I don't know how good the Whitmire team they shut out 36-0 in the opener is and I do know how not good the Pelion team they smacked 50-14 is, but that match-up was a very small Class A vs. a big AAA. You could kind of see this coming as the team went from a tire fire 1-9 in 2014, to a competitive 4-7 last season. They simplified their offense, going from a spread to a Wing and it clicked. Nothing fancy, just athletic backs running behind a big ol' offensive line. Looking at their roster, they might not be quite as big up front, but Lawdy does the "athletic backs" part still apply. Tre Davis ran for 144 yards last week and converted wide receiver Tyquaun Williams had 214 and two touchdowns. The team also has good numbers out this year. They're off this week, but we'll see how accurate my prediction is when they face Bethune-Bowman and HKT the following two weeks. You might be compelled to say "Eugene, you genius," like Brian White does at number four this week on the countdown. Or you might not, since my name isn't Eugene. 3. McBee The Panthers not lonely lost talent from last season, they lost some special players in guys like Jordan Fair, one of the best athletes regardless of class in South Carolina last year. Still, tackling Deshonnell Wright and preventing him from scoring touchdowns still appears to be problematic for other high school children and McBee just keeps trucking along. True, they got ripped for 45 points this past week, but that was against the very potent passing attack of Chesterfield and if you score 52, it doesn't really matter if you give up 45, now does it? Tack on the biggest "playing up" scalp of any Class A team this year (beating AAAA Lakewood badly) and it's hard to see how you can't have the Panthers high on your list. BOY HOWDY, are they good. 2. Lake View Regular readers of this inane hillbilly meat and football blog know that I have a well-placed, anonymous, low-country pigskin informant. He knows of what he speaks and one of the teams that causes worry for him where his beloved Lamar Silver Foxes are involved, is Lake View. He said their size up front, their active defense and their stable of stud hoss backs are going to make them a contender this year. They returned most everyone from last year's squad that lost in the lowerstate finals on a last-second field goal. They beat a good AA Latta team in the opener and took it to the sausage people (Johnsonville) last week. They don't have a really challenging schedule the rest of the way, so look for them to enter the post-season undefeated. You might start to hear chatter about them going undefeated on the radio, provided there ain't nothing wrong with it. Lady and gentlemen, South Carolina's own Aaron Tippin! 1. Lamar This requires very little explanation. They are the defending state champs, they returns nine starters from a crap-kicking defense of last year, they've given up three points in three games dating back to last year's state title game and they physically whipped Pageland Central at their place Friday. They are the big one...just like this song about pootin' in church from Confederate Railroad, which moves up to number one in the country!
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Dixie- 13 Southside Christian- 40 Ware Shoals- Nam Lincoln County- 41 McCormick- Not nam Whitmire- 26 Great Falls- Nern Lamar- 31 Pageland Central- Seriously, did anyone who lost score any points this week? Lewisville- 24 Blacksburg- 22 McBee- 52 Chesterfield- 45 Timmonsville- 14 East Clarendon- 6 The Fightin' Barts- 26 Blackville-Hilda- 26 points less than the Barts had. Bethune-Bowman- 32 Denmark-Olar- 6 Ridgeland/Hardeeville- 22 Estill- 12 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 46 Edisto- 15 Branchville- 37 North- 14 Saluda- 49 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 13 Wagener-Salley- 50 Pelion- 14 Silver Bluff- 42 Williston-Elko- 12 Baptist Hill- 36 Garrett Academy Tech U A&M- 14 Porter Gaud- 51 Charleston Charter- Zip North Charleston- 52 Military Magnet- 22 St. John's- 35 R.B. Stall- 21 Bamberg-Ehrhardt- 28 C.E. Murray- 0 Manning- 28 Scott's Branch- ZERO Latta- 57 Creek Bridge- 6 Marion- 16 Hannah-Pamplico- 10 Hemingway- 44 Kingstree- Goose egg Lake View- 42 Johnsonville- 14 Breakdown- As is always the case early in the season, there were a bevy of Class A teams playing up in classification in Week 1 and they more than held their own, going 9-11 in such games. Region II had an especially good night on Friday, with Lamar shutting out Pageland Central, Lewisville beating Blacksburg and McBee winning a shootout with Chesterfield. I've said for a while that I think the upperstate champion is coming from this region and you can put those three games in the "LOOK AT ME, I'M RIGHT" file for safe keeping. Lamar shut out the perennial AA power 31-0 on the road. The Silver Foxes are still breaking in some new offensive skill talent and didn't put up eye-pooping numbers there, but I think with the way they are playing defense, a legless ninny goat could probably play quarterback for Lamar and they'd be OK. I mean, as long as the ninny goat doesn't turn it over a lot or eat the ball, which might be a penalty, but I digress. Dating back to the state title game in December, Lamar has allowed three points in its last three games. Math is not area of strength for me, but even I can discern that a point a game isn't many. That number may swell some next week when they play AAAA Darlington, but the Silver Foxes D not only doesn't break much, it doesn't even bend. They held Pageland to well under 100 total yards. Even if Pageland is down, which I understand may be the case, to have not only the athletes to shut them down, but the discipline to never make a mistake or get out of position against that offense is very impressive. McBee overcame a five-touchdown-pass performance by Chesterfield's Savion Watson to notch a third-straight win over the Rams. Unless McBee is doing some different stuff this year, they are normally comfortable bringing the house and playing man coverage which can leave the door open for some big passing plays. But, Dashonnell Wright did his normal Dashonnell Wright kinda stuff, scoring three touchdowns and the Panthers are 2-0 with two impressive "up" wins. Lewisville showed some real grit and fortitude in its victory over Blacksburg. They were without quarterback Trey Keels, who suffered an ankle injury in the opener. That meant Quentin Sanders, a running back who hasn't been under center since ninth grade, got the start. The Lions weren't able to throw it as much, which took the big-play element out of the offense, but they have a single-wing package they use some anyway, so they just leaned more heavily in that direction. On top of that, stud OLB Jene Thompson was injured in pre-game warm-ups and missed the game. There were several times the game could've gotten away from the Lions, including on a fumble with under five minutes to go only up two, and in past years it might have. This is a different bunch this year with a lot of senior leadership...keep an eye on them. The other "up" winners were HKT (who did terrible, awful things to Edisto), Wagener-Salley (same, only Pelion was on the receiving end), Baptist Hill, St. John's Hemingway and Lake View, who really took it to the sausage people and look every bit like the contender my clandestine lowerstate soothsayer predicted. The early portion of the schedule has offered some surprises, both positive and negative thus far. Slot the Bethune-Bowman Mohawks into the "positive category." The program had four wins in three years before Coach Ken Tucker arrived on campus last year. They took a measured baby-step forward in 2015, going 2-8, but now are 2-0 with back-to-back blowout wins. I didn't realize how badly they'd beaten Military Magnet last week. I saw they won 34-0, but missed the fact that the game was topped at halftime by the weather. They followed that up with a good rootin' of Denmark-Olar on Friday. There isn't a whole lot of information available on either victory, but I did find some video highlights from the D-O game. Quarterback Braxton Wedgeworth looks like a good athlete with a good arm, running back Makiah Simmons is exactly the kind of runner his 5'8, 225-pound dimensions indicate he would be (read: an irritable cross-breeding of a bowling ball made of butcher knives and angry hornets) and the defense was very opportunistic, with three picks. They have an excellent shot at 3-0 this Friday with North on the schedule, then will have a real measuring stick game against Wagener-Salley...speaking of the folks from Chitterlingville, the War Eagles are also 2-0 after thumping Pelion. Two years ago, they were 1-9 and most of the losses were not close. They got to 4-7 last year and look ready to make a serious run this season. Running back Tyquaun Williams, a converted receiver, ran for 214 yards and 2 touchdowns Friday night while Tre Davis added 144. When I saw them last year, they'd moved to a sort of hybrid wing offense and must still be in it, since they had two backs over 140 yards and threw it twice with one completion. That means their defensive backs actually caught more passes than their receivers (they picked four Friday) but there's certainly nothing wrong with lining up behind a big O-line, ramming it down someone's gullet, controlling the clock and forcing turnovers on defense. They'll be off this coming week, then have a couple of tough ones against Bethune-Bowman and HKT. Their region figures to be a fight between they and Williston-Elko...or not, since I'm now seemlessly veering into the "sheetfar, who'da thunk they were 0-2" portion of the proceedings and Williston tops that list. Now, their start is probably nothing to panic over since they've played up against Barnwell and Silver Bluff the first two weeks. It's worth nothing, though, that they shut out Barnwell 26-0 and gave Silver Bluff, who would ultimately play for state in AA, a 44-29 battle last year. They only managed 59 yards rushing, 87 passing and turned it over twice Friday, which aren't the kind of offensive numbers you're used to seeing from that program, which has had among the most prolific offenses in the state for the past decade. Maybe Barnwell and Silver Bluff are improved over last year or maybe, as happens at every Class A program from time to time, there has either been a talent dip at Williston or they lost a big group of seniors and need more time to develop the younger kids that are plugging the holes. I'm guessing by the time they start playing Class A teams, they'll look considerably more formidable. Same goes for 0-2 Ridge Spring-Monetta, who has fallen to Batesburg-Leesville and Saluda to open the season. Suggested Reading (and viewing) Look at me doin' some vidya of Lewisville's win over Blackburg! And a second vidya, even. (h/t for production and editing help to "Mr. Unincorporated.") Speaking of moving pictures on your screen, check out these highlights of the 2-0 Mohawks! I'm not big on eating stuff that poop has to be removed from before cooking, but let's not hold that against the folks from the Chittlin' Capitol of the World, who beat the poop out of the opposition on Friday night. Williston lost to Silver Bluff and I have four free articles left to read on this website, if that's something you care about. Bamberg-Ehrhardt and C.E. Murray played a Saturday game at Oliver C. Dawson Bulldog Stadium. Great experience for all the kids involved I'm sure, but it was B-E emerging with the victory. You can read capsules on game involving Hannah-Pamplico, Lamar, McBee, Lake View and others here. Or you can go through not life knowing...knowing is half the battle kids. More capsules can be found here on North, HKT and others. I've given you a lot of capsules...it's like we met behind some bushes at a weigh station off the interstate and you needed something to keep you awake for the long drive...or not. That's all I've got. Want to weigh in on a game you saw or something stupid I said? Leave it in the comment section or email me at [email protected]. Barnwell (1-0) at Blackville-Hilda
This will be the season-opener for B-H, while Barnwell (or the Fightin' Barts as I call them) opened the year with a 43-18 win over Williston-Elko last week. It's hard, this early in the year, to know if that means Williston-Elko is in for an off year or Barnwell is improved from 2015 when they lost to Williston. Call me an old sentimental type, or a goober, a ne'er-do-well, a lay-about, a slugabed...I'll answer to most anything, but I just like 1A better when Blackville-Hilda is competitive and has a say-so in how things turn out in the post-season. Unfortunately, they've really struggled for a while, posting just eight wins in the last three years, though they were competitive in a lot of losing efforts last season. This game should let us know if the Barts are the real deal and if the Hawks are ready to break out of the doldrums. Ridgeland/Hardeeville (1-0) at Estill (0-1) I've long applauded Ridgeland/Hardeeville for eschewing the hyphen and going with a forward slash. It says "we're different and our punctuation proves it." They beat Thomas Heyward Academy to open the season, while Estill fell to Allendale-Fairfax 24-2. Does Hardeeville have an actual Hardees. If they do, I'd like to file a complaint...less of the "let's see how much crap we can pack between two pieces of bread" philosphy and more of the Big Cookie. No Big Cookie, no peace! I'm not filling space, YOU'RE filling space. Edisto (0-1) at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (0-1) Edisto struggled in the opener...if by "struggled" you mean "had to bite down on a towel, losing to O-W 54-0. HKT played way up in the opener, battling Fairfield Central but falling 42-14. Expect big things this year from HKT junior QB DeVante Scott, who threw for more than 1,200 yards last year and ran for almost 1,600, with 30 total touchdowns. North at Branchville (0-1) North is opening their season with this one, while Branchville might need a salve of some kind to recover from the 50-6 rootin' Baptist Hill gave them last week. Not a lot of analysis to offer here. North is trying to break in a new spread offense, good luck with it y'all. Ridge Spring-Monetta (0-1) at Saluda (0-1) Count me as surprised, not that these two teams lost last week, but how badly they lost. RSM lost to Batesburg-Leesville 36-7 and Saluda fell to Strom Thurmond 38-7. The Tigers got gashed for over 300 yards rushing in their loss, which was more than QB Tyrell Abney's 211 total yards could balance out. RSM fumbled five times and didn't get a first down until its sixth possession, so the Trojans may have just been outmanned. Their lone score, oddly was on a 79-yard pass pass in the 4th quarter by QB Jerry Tyler...odd, since they are normally averse to throwing the ball and junk. With a small school like RSM, sometimes there's a dip in athletes or a loss of a big senior class that takes a while to replace. It could be they were just overwhelmed by a bigger, more talented team last week, but if that's the case more of that is likely in store this week against the higher-in-classification Tigers. I've also noticed, in recent years, the Trojans seem to do their best work later in the season, so give them time. Pelion (0-1) at Wagener-Salley (1-0) Look out for the folks from Chitterling-ville. Wagener-Salley roughed up what has been a resurgent Whitmire team 36-nam last week. The Eagles showed a great deal of improvement last year and seem to have taken another step in the right direction in 2016. From what I've been able to gather, they physically overwhelmed the Woverines. They had terrific size up front last year, a QB that didn't make many mistakes, some athletic backs and just pounded the rock. Sounds like more of the same this year. That might be enough against a Pelion team that is low on numbers, got whipped in almost every game last year and lost the opener to Calhoun County 46-22 last week. Baptist Hill (1-0) at Garrett Academy Tech (0-1) Is there a more convoluted school name in the state than Garrett Academy Tech A&M Comperhensive High, North Charleston Campus? No. No there is not. They got one stuck in them and broke off last week against Porter Gaud, Baptist Hill had a huge win over Branchville and thus ends the things I can tell you about this match-up that are relevant or true. Charleston Charter Math and Science School (0-1) at Porter Gaud (1-0) I may have spoken too soon on the "why is your school named that?" topic. CCMASS (Gah, the abbreviation is even overly long) is a new program and boy did they take one last week, losing to First Baptist School 47-0. Since Porter Gaud routed Garrett last week, this match-up does not portend well for the smart kids, I'm thinking. C.E. Murray vs. Bamberg-Ehrhardt Put this just a whisker behind Lamar-Pageland for my favorite match-up of the week. The two will actually be battling Saturday at S.C. State, which will be a great experience for both teams. C.E. Murray, your defending lowerstate champion, opened the year with a nice "up" win, 33-20 over Kingstree. Darius Rush, who had played quarterback for the team last year but is now primarily at RB and WR, ran for 111 yards and 4 flipping touchdowns on 11 carries last week. Carlton Robinson had 110 yards on eight carries (and a score), so the War Eagles were ripping off yards in pretty big chunks last week on the ground. Malik Starling had 17 tackles in the win and Daviyan Oglesby picked off two passes. I'm partial to C.E. Murray because the team not only came out of nowhere to make a run to state last year (it was their first winning season in a decade) but the Greeleyville area, where the school is located, was one of the hardest hit areas in the state by flooding last year. During the season, many players were living in shelters or were trapped in their homes...so to overcome that and have the best season in school history says quite a bit about those kids and coaches, to me. The Raiders, now in the AA ranks beat Woodland 21-12 last week, a nice win over a larger opponent. Since there's no college football to speak of Saturday and Friday's slate will already be in the books, hard to see how you shouldn't get to this one if you can. Everybody else, congratulations, you're getting jammed into a multi-song medley, kinda like my dad was subjected to when he went and saw Ronnie Milsap at Carowinds a long time ago...Stranger in my house, I wouldn't have missed it for the world, Daydreams about night things and two other hits rammed into a five-song medley that concluded the 25 entire minute-long concert. Hopefully you'll be more pleased that Pop was that afternoon... Other match-ups include Stall at St. John's (0-1), Military Magnet (0-1) at North Charleston, Creek Bridge (0-1) at Latta (0-1), Hanah-Pamplico (0-1) at Marion (0-1), Hemingway at Kingstree (0-1) and Johnsonville (1-0) at Lake View (1-0) Crescent (1-0) at Dixie (1-0)
The Hornets got new coach Vic Lollis a win in his first game at the helm of the program and good for them. They beat Ware Shoals 28-21, with Jared Hagood running for 149 yards and Bogdan Dyakov scoring a pair of touchdowns. The sledding will get tougher this week...like, the sled is going uphill and pulling heavy rocks behind it. Maybe one of the blades is rusty or broken. They've got AAA Crescent tonight, a 34-0 winner over Calhoun Falls Charter last week. Despite my dumb sledding analogy, this game isn't unwinnable and the Hornets have already matched last year's win total, so things should be looking up a little in Due West. Lincoln County (Ga.) at McCormick (0-1) McCormick had a rough go of things in last week's opener, falling to Fox Creek 35-6, though the game was close for a half. Running back Mataeo Durant is generally difficult for other high school children to tackle and did have his team's lone touchdown last week, but was held under 50 yards. That trend isn't likely to continue. Now, I know very little about Lincoln County except they beat McCormick 41-6 last year and they're named like a former president is named. I wonder if there are any other presidentially-named schools in Georgia? Just betting Grant Comprehensive isn't a thing that exists there. Southside Christian (1-0) at Ware Shoals (0-1) Ware Shoals lost a tough game to Dixie last week, falling behind early before rallying to make it a 28-21 final. They actually attempted 15 passes, which isn't a thing you see from the wing-bone-flexy-scrummy attack the Hornets normally employ, but that could be a product of getting behind and having to try to catch up. It's been an odd couple of down years for Ware Shoals, which had been competitive for a while, where a cannon was once fired at me and where delicious BBQ nachos can be had (I guess they still can) in the concession stand. Southside Christian won the Division I Class A title last year, but won't be repeating since they aren't in Class A anymore. They beat St. Joe's last week 29-12, but had an odd coaching change in July, when Steve Kaiser stepped down to spend more time with his family and Mike Sonneborn, the former OC, became head coach. I don't think any of that will matter for a while, as their schedule sets up to have the Sabres probably make it to 8-0, then they play Abbeville and may not walk right for a while...we'll see. Whitmire (0-1) at Great Falls (0-1) Things didn't go especially well for the Wolverines or Red Devils in Week 0, with Whitmire losing to Wagener-Salley 36-0 and the Great Falls going down to New Covenant 64-13. The Woverines have had a terrific two-year run, making the playoffs in 2014 and 2015, which came on the heels of not winning a game for four years. They graduated 18 seniors which is tough for a school with 160-ish kids to recover from right away. They do return three offensive linemen and wingback Devin Vo. Great Falls has a new coach, a new offense and a new defense. On top of that, depth is not really thing you'll find here so, again, a break-in period has to be allowed for. Aaron Rice is a legit speedster at WR/RB/DB/LB and pretty much any other two-letter abbreviation you want to attach to him. He runs under 4.4 and had two touchdowns last week. Oddly, given the score, the defense didn't play that badly last week, but New Covenant ran a punt back had returned three turnovers for scores, so things just kinda snowballed. With such a limited sample size to work from from both so far, its hard to know where this one's going. Lamar (1-0) at Pageland OK, if work obligations didn't dictate I be somewhere else and I could pick any game in the state to go to, this would be the one. It's the season-opener for Pageland while Lamar whacked Hannah-Pamplico 41-3 last week. Rashard Coleman threw the ball well for the Silver Foxes and Jacquez Lucas had 111 yards and a score on the ground. Mainly, most teams aren't gonna be able to pee a drop against that nasty Lamar defense that returns nine starters from last year's state title team. The reason this game intrigues me so is the history and tradition at both schools. Lamar has had one losing record in the last 22 seasons, while Pageland has never had a losing record...ever. That's among the most impressive feats in this history of this state. The thing is, both schools have up-and-down cycles of athletes just like anybody. When you have sustained excellence for decades upon decades, it's a testament to a couple of things...mainly coaching, community support, a quality feeder system and tough kids who don't want let the guys that came before them down. At Pageland, which bills itself as the Watermelon Capital of the World, players chunk melons at one another in the summer, I've been told. An old fellow who sells produce on the roadside told me Pageland is actually more into sweet taters now than watermelons...he also told me sweet taters are good for you but lay terrible gas on his stomach. So, you know, that's a thing you needed to know. Chunking taters wouldn't really scream "tough" but the watermelons do, so does the physical, whip-your-tail style they ALWAYS play on both sides of the ball. If you've never seen the manner in which they enter the stadium, they run down a hill onto the field one at a time and knock the mess out of one another. Every member of the team has hit and been hit before their games even start. It's a pretty awesome spectacle to behold. When it comes to being tough, ditto for Lamar, a team I've never seen lay down and never seen give up. Even the years the Silver Foxes have had a more finesse spread offense, they still played with a chip on their shoulder and still looked to intimidate whoever is lined up across from them. If you didn't see this excellent story a few months ago, read it right now. If your team is off or playing a non-descript opponent, blow it off and go see this game. This will be a great battle! Blacksburg at Lewisville (1-0) The Wildcats are opening the season tonight and from what I've heard have moved away from the scrum they've run for a few years and are spreading it out. Watching teams in the infancy of instituting a spread is normally right up there with "staring at your left thumb" on the interesting scale. Seriously, lots of incompletions, lots of clock stoppages, fatties up front holding a lot. Awesome. Lewisville put it on Andrew Jackson 36-6 last week and really could have won by an even larger margin if not for a couple of turnovers and penalties. Mike Hill and Johnny Courtney, the ones I've said are the best receiving tandem in 1A...yeah, two touchdowns apiece. The defense created 14 lost-yardage plays and picked off three passes. If they get through this one against a AA team with a big size advantage up front, the Lions might not be challenged until September 30 against McBee. Chesterfield at McBee (1-0) This series has turned around in recent years. McBee, long Chesterfield's whipping boy, has won two straight and last year's game wasn't particularly close. It's kind of like when you hit a growth spurt and suddenly you can whip your older brother. Really pay him back for all those noogies and wet willies and wedgies and swirlies he gave you when you were a kid. You give him a real sound beating...maybe hogtie him and leave him pantsless in a grain silo or something. You get my point, they beat McBee badly for a long time, McBee repaid the favor blah blah. The Panthers started with another "up" win, a rare 1A over AAAA victory as they downed Lakewood for the second straight year. East Clarendon (0-1) at Timmonsville (0-1) East Clarendon lost to the sausage people 23-0 last week...that's Johnsonville, by the way, who should totally change their mascot to "The Fightin' Sausages." Have a big sausage dancing around on the sidelines. Wouldn't that be great? Anyway, they'll be at Timmonsville, who gave a pretty game effort against AAA Wilson last week in a 27-6 loss. Chris Taylor scored the lone touchdown for the Whirlwinds on a 52-yard pass from Jamaric Morris. Since both teams played up last week, it's sort of hard to get the lay of the land on this one...which is a weenie, BS way of saying "Got nothing for you, Hoss...what's next?" Bethune-Bowman (1-0) at Denmark-Olar (0-1) The Mohawks were winners in the opener, bombing Miltary Magnet 32-0. See what I did there? Bomb? Military? WOO HOO! As near as I can tell, there were exactly zero members of the press in attendance at that one, so if you saw it, I'd love to hear how the Mohawks looked (if any wise a$$ says "Like Mr. T's head" I'm not going to be pleased). Denmark-Olar lost to Scott's Branch 6-0, which sounds like an old-school throwback game. You know, ones you've seen black-and-white film of, where guys named Clem and W.K. Beat the crap out of one another, running the wedge or Straight-T, wearing helmets made of scotch tape. Water was for sissies then and so were casts or oitnment, you rubbed dirt on the itchy place or sucking wound and you went back in the game, B.D. I'm filling space here because, seriously, can't find a thing on this game either. Got info on either, leave it in the comments section please. Bout all I've got time for tonight yungins...part two of the weekly Class A preview should be coming your way tomorrow. There is no way to know, prior to a high school football game's kickoff, which team is going to emerge victorious. One factor, though, does appear to give a fairly reliable indication as to who wins and who loses…enrollment numbers.
The News & Reporter studied the results of every Class A and AA game played in the state last season and compared the outcome to the enrollment numbers of each team involved in all those contests. Games that involved out-of-state teams, non-SCHSL private schools or home-school teams were not considered, since their enrollment is not certified by the State Department of Education. The results show that more than 62 percent of the time, the school with the larger enrollment number wins, even if the difference in student body is slight. In Class A, South Carolina's smallest classification, the numbers are very pronounced. Out of 234 games played involving those schools, the school with a higher attendance figure won 66.6 percent of the time. For the most part, the bigger the gap in attendance, the less chance there appears to be for the smaller team to succeed. The were 45 games last year in which a Class A school faced a team with a student body at least 400 greater than its own. The smaller team was the winner in only seven of those games, a winning percentage of 15.5 percent. The biggest attendance gap any Class A school was able to bridge was 890, which came when McBee defeated Lakewood. There were only 11 games involving teams that had a size differential of between 300 and 399 students in Class A last year, but the smaller school won only three times (27.2 percent of the time). Thirty-nine times, there were games involving an attendance spread between the schools of 200 and 299 students with the smaller school winning 10 times, or 25.6 percent of the time. That's a lower percentage of small-over-big upsets than with a spread of 301 to 400 students, but it comes with a sample size more than three times as large (39 games compared to 11). There were 55 games last season in Class A where the difference in enrollment was 100 to 199 students and the smaller school won 41.8 percent of the time. That's basically the same as the winning percentage for a smaller school when the difference in student body is less than 100 (35 of 84, or 41.6 percent). Not surprisingly, the team with the most wins over larger schools was McBee, which advanced to the upperstate finals in the Division I-A playoffs. The Panthers, who played a number of AA and AAA schools out-of-region, had an impressive eight victories over bigger schools. Cross, C.E. Murray (the Division II-A lowerstate champion) and Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (a two time-defending Division II champ from 2013 and '14) had six "up" wins each. Interestingly, Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, which has under 160 students, was at a size disadvantage in terms of enrollment in every game it played last season. Lake View had five wins over larger schools while McCormick, Whitmire, Lamar (the Division II state champion) and Williston-Elko collected four apiece. There are a lot of advantages that come with being a larger school and some are obvious. More students means more potential athletes walking the halls. Lewisville Coach Will Mitchell said that is certainly one factor, but said there are others. Smaller schools can usually put 22 competitive starters on the field, but often times don't have as much depth or may have to play some athletes on both sides of the ball. "Every once in a while, you get a Class A team who doesn't have to start guys both ways. For the second time in my five years at Lewisville, we're in that position now, but it only takes one injury to start a domino effect. If I get an offensive lineman hurt, then I may have to move a defensive linemen to his spot, where that guy had been only playing one way. Then I probably have to spell him on one side or the other, so a guy who wouldn't have been playing now is," Mitchell said. More players and superior depth aren't the only two advantages, however. Mitchell said some actually have nothing to do with players at all. Some Class A schools are very small (19 have less than 250 students) and have extremely limited budgets for athletics. "Bigger schools usually have more resources, more money. That allows them to not only have more coaches, but have coaches with teaching positions who are on campus all day. Smaller schools almost always have to rely on volunteer coaches from the community or ones who have another job," Mitchell said. Great Falls Coach John Barrett said it may not be ideal to play schools considerably bigger than your own, but said sometimes money and logistics dictate it. "Sometimes you're almost forced to because of location. When I was at York we had to play Rock Hill and Northwestern because they were eight miles down the road," Barrett said. Barrett also said that certain teams seem to be impervious to the affect of smaller enrollment. He cited Lamar and Dillon which regularly beat schools that are larger than them, sometimes considerably larger. They seem to relish the chance to beat "the big boys," he said. "Places like that, ones that have tradition, I really don't think it even matters," he said. Size differential makes a difference in the AA ranks as well, but not as much as in Class A. There were 266 games last year involving AA schools in South Carolina and the school with higher enrollment numbers won 62.2 percent of the time. That's better than Class A performed, but Mitchell said the differences in the number of players and resources is much bigger when a school with 200 students plays one with 600, as opposed to the school with 600 students playing one with an enrollment of 1,000. There is some cause for hope for Class A's smallest teams. As mentioned, HKT won two recent titles despite being the smallest of the small and in of Class A's two title games last year, the smaller team brought home the big trophy. For an expanded version of this story, featuring a more in-depth breakdown of AA numbers, CLICK HERE. 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Calhoun Falls- 0 Dixie- 28 Ware Shoals- 21 Fox Creek- 35 McCormick- 6 Wagener-Salley- 36 Whitmire- 0 New Covenant Knights- 64 Great Falls- 13 Lamar- 41 Hannah-Pamplico- 3 Lewisville- 36 Andrew Jackson- 6 McBee- 28 Lakewood- 14 Wilson- 27 Timmonsville- 6 Scott's Branch- 6 Denmark-Olar- Nam Allendale-Fairfax- 24 Estill- 2 Fairfield Central- 42 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 14 Batesburg-Leesville- 36 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 7 The Fightin' Barnwell Barts- 43 Williston-Elko- 18 Baptist Hill- 50 Branchville- Considerably less than 50 First Baptist School- 47 Charleston Charter- 0 Bethune-Bowman- 32 Military Magnet- 0 James Island- 35 St. John's- 22 C.E. Murray- 33 Kingstree- 20 Cross- 46 Burke- 14 Mullins- 38 Creek Bridge- 16 Johnsonville- 23 East Clarendon- Nern Green Sea-Floyds- 38 East Columbus- 14 Lake View- 20 Latta- 14 Breakdown- The private schools are gone, the charter schools are gone, the split playoff format is gone, the points system is gone...but silly jokes about power drills and poop are back with a vengeance as the Pigskin & Pigskins blog revs it up for another season of exciting Class A football action. When last we saw Class A athletes competing in football, Lamar was busy shutting out C.E. Murray for the Division II-A crown and some private school from Greenville won the other'n...again. Of course, the entire landscape has changed since that time. For the first time, the SCHSL is going with five classifications. That means the difference between the biggest and smallest schools in each class will be less, which should make things a bit more competitive. If we're being honest, the primary benefit that move had for Class A was shoving most of the non-public schools up to AA. Those schools have a lot of built-in advantages that I've written about before, they were dominating state titles in most every sport and slightly larger, better-funded AA schools are better equipped to compete with them. We have a new playoff format (I hate it and think it sucks and said so HERE previously) so these early games, really, don't count for much of anything, other than to prepare teams for region slates, provide us with entertainment and give me material for this inane blog. One of the rites of early-season football is Class A teams "playing up" against higher classifications. Some of those are money games, some just make good geographic sense and some are scheduled because teams are desperate to find 10 games and don't have any Class A schools in their area that aren't already in their region. Desperate choices are ones you usually regret...like when it gets to be closing time at Jim Tommy's Beer Barn on Achy Breaky Ladies night and a "no way" turns into a "well, her feet ain't bad lookin'." You know what I'm saying...or you don't, because I really don't either. Anyway, Class A teams fared pretty well, going 4-9 against bigger schools this past week. One of those wins was Lewisville over Andrew Jackson, 36-6 in a game that wasn't even that close. The Lions held the Vols to an anemic 32 yards on 35 carries and piled up well over 400 yards of offense. I said last year that Lewisville's time was coming and I think it's here. They're running a an old Bears 46 defense and have used it thus far to pummel children from opposing schools. You know about D-lineman Josh Belk, who sports a bevy of big-time college offers, but Jene Thompson and Daryl Manning off the edges are just nasty, while Keilan Renegar and Chase Yoder have been picking passes left-and-right through the pre-season. They have a three-year starter at QB. probably the best receiver tandem in Class A and only start one underclassman. Between them, Lamar and McBee, Region II will be a war this year. Oh, and speaking of McBee, they brought home probably the biggest scalp this weekend, whippin' up on AAAA Lakewood. Fair, Hawkins and a bunch of other guys who helped author the turnaround for the Panthers the past two years are gone, but Dashonnel Wright is still around and had his usual, ho-hum, 100 yards and two touchdowns. Granted, Lakewood wasn't very good last year and McBee beat them in 2015 too, but a 1A beating a AAAA is a significant achievement. The other two "up" winners were defending lowerstate champ C.E. Murray beating Kingstree for the second straight year and Lake View knocking off Latta. For those new here, I have a secretive, low country informant...kind of a Pee Dee Deep Throat. He says to watch out for Lake View this year. Eighteen starters back from a 10-3 team, some monsters up front on offense and a couple of stud hosses in the backfield, including Delvon Bethea (125 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries against Latta). There were a couple of surprises in the opening week, including Wagener-Salley going behind the brick wall, next to the public golf course (which operated on the honor system last time I played there...seriously, had like, a mason jar with a slit cut in the lid for you to slide your greens fees in) in the Pearl of the Piedmont and beating the Wolverines. I haven't read any accounts of that game yet, so I'm not exactly sure how it shook out, other than Wagener scoring lots of points and Whitmire scoring none (that's the sort of in-depth analysis you get here). Now, Wagener-Salley took a nice step forward last year under new coach Willie Fox, going a respectable 4-7, with some of their losses being fairly competitive games, after the 1-9 tire fire that was 2014. They did have a 300-pound fullback that year and the entertainment value of watching other high school children ride him like a camel at a petting zoo in a fruitless attempt to tackle him was amusing...but I digress. Whitmire, after being mired in a year-long losing streak, got to 6-5 last year. They lost 18 seniors from that team, but had terrific numbers in the program overall. Might have been a tad hasty on my part to expect that many guys to step into starting roles without some initial drop-off...or maybe the War Eagles are ready to contend this year. Whitmire has tough match-ups with Lewisville and Ridge Spring-Monetta on the horizon, so we'll see where they stand soon enough. I guess I was sort of surprised that Great Falls lost to New Covenant by such a wide margin. Great Falls has a new coach who I've been very impressed with in John Barrett, but the team is breaking in a new spread offense after 16 years in the Wing-T, is in a 4-2 after running a 4-3 defense for over a decade and is dealing with the same numbers crunch many smaller Class A teams go through. It's sort of hard to know what you're getting when you play one of these unaffiliated teams like New Covenant. Some of them are legitimately made up of home-schooled students and kids from private schools that don't have football teams. I saw one in a scrimmage a few weeks ago, though, that also has students from public schools that just don't want to play for their own school for some reason, be it playing time, not liking a coach, daddy not liking a coach, daddy deciding you're gonna be a starting dern QB and he'll create his own team if he has to make his, er your, dream a reality etc. There are others that veer into full-on sketchy territory. There's one in particular that was, for a long time, really, made up of children who went to science class in their own dining room or whatever. They had a coaching change, though, and became populated with kids who'd been, uh, informed that their services were no longer needed at the public school they attended. They also had some fifth-year seniors...and I think Michael Vick played quarterback for them, which, you know, seems like he'd be out of eligibity by now. Anyway, these teams are popping up everywhere and you'll notice a lot of them playing 1A and AA schools. Great Falls and Whitmire battle this Friday so both have a shot to bounce back this week. Quick Hits- I was unfamiliar with First Baptist School until they gave the new Charleston Charter a proper seeing to Friday. Just wondering...if the OC and DC don't get along, will one of them go start Second Baptist School? If there are covered dishes in the concessions stand, I am totally going down there for a game...Defending champ Lamar picked right up where they left off last year, doling out a "running clock in the second half" rootin' to Hannah-Pamplico. With nine starters back on defense (and good ones at that), putting points on the board against the Silver Foxes will be a chore this year. Wasn't sure how the offense would look without Durant and Ceasar, but Rashard Coleman threw the ball well (Lamar rarely aired it out last season) and Jacquez Lucas had 111 yards and a score on the ground...Congrats to Dixie on getting an opening-week win. The Hornets, who have long been good in other sports but haven't had that translate to football much, won only once last year and didn't notch that victory until mid-October...I wasn't surprised that Fox Creek downed McCormick, as the Predators had a good season last year, have some skill talent back and are now in the AA ranks, but I did not expect to see McCormick's Mataeo Durant held to 49 yards, since that was a good quarter for him last year. It's hard to know what's going on with some of these early-season games if you aren't there to see them in person. Could be breaking in new offensive linemen, Fox Creek could have sold out to stop him, but I'm willing to bet he'll be back to stepping on people's faces and piling up really gaudy numbers in short order...I have little of consequence to offer on the Mullins-Creek Bridge game other than the Auctioneers have a running back named Willie Nelson. He and the Mullins fullback comprise the feared Pancho and Lefty backfield...or they should anyway. There's a whole other direction I could go with Willie Nelson jokes, given the country legend's, uh, extracurricular pursuits. OK, I'll do one...I bet Mullins likes running a real slow draw play. HERP DIDDLY HAW HEE! Suggested reading... Dixie opened the year with a nice win over Ware Shoals. Unrelated, a dude shot a cannon at me at Ware Shoals once. True story. To hear their coach tell it, Fox Creek kinda thumped it around with a lower appendage for three quarters but did put McCormick away late. You can read capsules on C.E. Murray, Lamar, McBee and East Clarendon here, or you can go through life ignorant...your pick Bubba. My covert low country expert says Lake View will be dolin' out some whoopins this year and they sure did look good against Latta. Green Sea-Floyds was most inhospitable to its out-of-town guests Friday. Mullins has an offensive lineman that wears size 19 shoes...one of which may be stuck a foot or two up...you know what, nevermind, his team was victorious against Williston-Elko. A couple of Class A alums (Alstevis Squirewell and B.J. Goodson) are on NFL rosters and making good cases for staying there. Agree? Think I'm full of it? Know where a good taco truck parks at lunchtime? Saw a game and want to offer your take? Leave comments below or email me at [email protected]. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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